Danon: UN hypocrisy against Israel has broken records

Outgoing UN Secretary General admits the international body is biased against Israel. Israel's envoy responds.

Ben Ariel, Canada, 16/12/16 22:04

Ambassador Danon reacts to UN Secretary General's statement

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Outgoing United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday admitted that the international body is biased against Israel.

In a statement to the Security Council summarizing his ten years in office, Ban said that "we must never accept bias against Israel within UN bodies."

The Secretary General then admitted that the UN has a "disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel" and that "in many cases, rather than helping the Palestinian cause, this reality has hampered the ability of the UN to fulfill its role effectively."

At the same time, Ban criticized Israel over the Regulation Law, which recently passed its first reading in the Knesset and would legalize the status of some communities in Judea and Samaria.

"I strongly urge legislators to reconsider advancing this bill, which will have negative legal consequences for Israel and substantially diminish the chances for Arab-Israeli peace," Ban said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, reacted to the Secretary General's statement with regards to Israel and criticized the UN.

"The Secretary General admitted the clear truth; the UN's hypocrisy towards Israel has broken records over the past decade. During this time the UN passed 223 resolutions condemning Israel while only eight resolutions condemning the Syrian regime as it has massacred its citizens over the past six years. This is absurd," said Danon.

"With a new Secretary General set to take office next month, we look forward to the possibility of a new era of fairness at the UN," the Ambassador added.

Friday’s remarks are not the first time that Ban has admitted the UN’s anti-Israel bias, though the last time he admitted it was during a 2013 session with Israeli students, and the comments were not widely reported by Israeli media.

Ban will be replaced on January 1 by the former prime minister of Portugal, Antonio Guterres, who was sworn in this past week.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)